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I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

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That's right, folks. The Chicago Bulls have won the Pau Gasol Sweepstakes! As their prize, they get to be the first to have to plan for not only Kobe, Bynum, LO, and Ron Ron, but also the might Spaniard, Pau Gasol! Aren't they lucky?

Actually, no. While he may be a bit rusty in his first game back, he also has a history of performing well against the Bulls. In their two-game regular season series last year, Gasol led the Lakers in scoring, averaging 28.5 points per game, as well as 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in 35.5 minutes. The Lakers won both games, the final scores of which were virtually identical:  116-109 at Staples Center, and 117-109 at United Center.

Suffice it to say that while no NBA team, executive, coach, or player wishes injury on another, the Bulls wouldn't have minded if Gasol had sat out one more game.

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On the scale of sportswriter adjectives, the Los Angeles Lakers hover somewhere between "shorthanded" and "injury-ravaged." Pau Gasol is improving but still out of commission. Kobe Bryant is playing, but with a hurt groin. Luke Walton has an aching back and is likely out until 2010.

And yet, their Tuesday night opponent, the Detroit Pistons, might be worse off still. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, who together dropped the guillotine blade on the Shaq-era Lakers in the 2004 Finals, are both shelved with injuries, and point guard Rodney Stuckey left the Pistons' Sunday night game early with a strained something. (It was either an ankle or a calf, depending on who you ask.) Stuckey will play tonight, but Detroit still runs only eight deep.

And that's only if you count Kwame Brown.

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More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

Nash is back, the Suns are back on track... and I have no idea what to make of it.

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Whew! Three days off is too damn long, but if you haven't yet looked ahead on the schedule, then I have good news for you. Not only do the Lakers play tonight, but they play tomorrow night, as well! It's been a slow start to the week, but you'll get your Lakers fix to end it.

For the Lakers, however, this presents a pretty stiff challenge. Not only do they begin a back-to-back tonight, but their opponents in said mini-gauntlet are the (other) two best teams in the West. Phoenix is 8-1 and the only team to have beaten Boston; Denver, meanwhile, won it's first five games before stumbling twice in a row, to two very good teams, and are now 6-3. The Lakers are 6-1, and haven't gotten there without some struggles on their own.

After the jump, a full preview of both games.

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Remember when the New Orleans Hornets were the next big thing? It wasn't that long ago, although to a Hornets fan it must seem like the Carter administration.

In the spring of 2008, the Hornets challenged the Los Angeles Lakers for best record in the Western Conference. They fell one game short of the conference's top seed, and then one game short of meeting the Lakers in the conference finals. With a seemingly young core of Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler, David West and Peja Stojakovic, the Hornets appeared on the verge of securing a more or less permanent seat on the NBA Security Council.

I say seemingly, though, because within that core group only Paul was really on the upswing of his career. And sure enough, last season involved some textbook-quality regression to the mean. Paul remained awesome, but West's play slipped a touch and Chandler and Peja missed substantial time with injuries. The Hornets tumbled to seventh in the conference and got roundhouse-kicked out of the first round by the Denver Nuggets.

On Sunday night they arrive at Staples with a 2-4 record and looking not terribly formidable. There's no more telling indicator of their decline than this: the Hornets are the only team in the NBA to have lost to the New York Knicks. And when someone's losing to the Knicks, I assume they're either butt-awful or point-shaving. The two aren't mutually exclusive, I suppose.

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The Memphis Grizzlies are, in some structural sense, the opposite of the Houston Rockets franchise the Lakers just faced. The Rockets have a widely admired basketball organization but a shortage of ability on the floor. They've got a smart young GM and a successful head coach but no elite players. They're all system, little talent.

The Grizzlies are all talent, zero system. Maybe negative system, if that makes any sense (obviously no, it doesn't). Their roster is littered with high lottery picks, famous names and even a former league MVP, and yet they still blow. The problem, basically, is meddlesome tightwad Michael Heisley, whom SI recently dubbed the third-worst owner in the NBA. Under Heisley's stewardship, the Grizzlies have become really young and really cheap, and although that strategy might result in a winning product a couple years from now, they're not there yet.

Of course, Laker fans do have Heisley to thank for Pau Gasol, so let's keep him in our hearts as we preview Friday night's game.

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More photos » by Kevork Djansezian - Getty Images

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Tonight, the Lakers take the court at Staples Center for their 2nd game of the season.  The first game was almost an afterthought.  The Lakers received their championship rings, unveiled their new banner, and then played a game that we all know they weren't full focused on.  For once, no one should really have a problem with it.  If the Lakers win the championship again this year, no one on SS&R will begrudge them a distracted game for the season opener next season either.

Tonight should be a little different.  The Lakers might still play an unfocused game, but they won't have any excuses if they do.  Tonight is just about basketball.  So how have these two teams looked coming in?

Dallas Mavericks (0-1, 100.5 OR, 112.7 DR, 90.5 possessions per game)

Dallas played opening night, same as the Lakers.  They lost at home to the Washington Wizards, behind an excellent game from newly returned star Gilbert Arenas.  Both teams had a lot of new players (either from trades or, in Washington's case, returning from injury), so how they played isn't necessarily indicative of what's to come from either team. Last year, Dallas surprised a few people by gelling as the season went on.  They were one of the better teams down the stretch (after it was initially unclear if they would even make the playoffs), and ended up with the 6th seed.  They promptly defeated the weakened Spurs in an upset that surprised very few, before getting annihilated by Denver in the Western Conference Semis.  They've made a few changes to last year's roster that have many saying they are poised for a great year, the biggest being the addition of Shawn Marion.  I personally remain unconvinced that Marion is anything other than a decent player who Steve Nash made look incredible, but I guess if you were going to pick a point guard besides Nash who could get the most out of Marion, you would have to pick ... Chris Paul.  Gotcha!  But seriously, Kidd would be high up on the list of point guards to know what to do with Marion's athletic talents.  And their season depends upon how well Marion can be integrated into the Mavericks offense, while hopefully improving a defensive team that has a lot of liabilities.

Los Angeles Lakers (1-0, 101.6 OR, 94.4 DR, 97.5 possessions per game)

The Lakers' mentality on opening night has already been described here, so we'll talk a bit about the game.  In the game itself, it was clear that the Laker starting 5, even without Pau, was vastly superior than a Clippers starting 5 (missing Blake Griffin) that has a good deal of talent, as evidenced by a 10 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter.  It was also clear that DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell should never see the floor together unless a game is out of reach, as the 2nd unit gave up all of the lead in a short 6 minute stretch.  The starters came back in and rebuilt a double digit lead by halftime.  The 3rd quarter saw those same starters visibly let up their intensity, and the Clippers made a run to make the game a one point affair.  If the 2nd unit had had a similar 6 minute stretch at the beginning of the 4th quarter to the one at the beginning of the 2nd, this game could have ended badly for the Lake Show.  But the coaches saw to it that wouldn't be the case.  No 5 man unit in the 4th quarter had less than two starters in it.  The Lakers pulled out a relatively comfortable victory, leading by as much as 13 in the 4th before setting for a 7 point win.  But there are some numbers that, while not concerning over a one game sample, would be bad news over the course of the season.  Those numbers are: 41, 40, 38, 38, and 33.  They are the minutes played of our starters, Artest, Odom, Bynum, Bryant, and Fisher respectively, and they are all too high.  The Lakers have too much talent to need anyone to play more than 38 a game, and Fisher is supposed to be much lower than 33.  But the bench needed a couple starters to hold their hands.  The Lakers bench is the key to their regular season success, and if the bench continues to struggle, L.A. will not be as strong as they could, and should, be.

Make the jump for some matchup analysis

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More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

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Just a few short hours from now, your World Champion Los Angeles Lakers will finally take the court for the opening game of the regular season.  Despite the fact that our fan base had a shorter summer than all the others, I think everyone would agree with me that it has been too long.  For me, the months between an old season's ending and a new season's beginning pass like gall stones, slow and painful, and nothing can be better than the return of the NBA to my life.

So, without further ado, here are some quick thoughts regarding the Lakers and their upcoming opponents in tonight's contest, our cross-arena foes, the Los Angeles Clippers.

How do the two teams look coming into tonight's contest?

Since both teams have identical 0-0 records coming into the game, there isn't a whole lot to say about how the teams have fared recently.  But I guess they play those preseason games for a reason, so we'll glean what we can from the 0th season.  The Clippers had a very successful preseason, going 6-2 with standout victories against the Spurs, Hornets, Jazz, Trailblazers, and of course, Maccabi Tel Aviv.  Since Israel is a couple seasons away from having an NBA franchise, it's clear that the actual results of these games don't matter.  However, there are a few things that can be learned about the Clippers this season.

• Baron Davis is in fantastic shape.  I have no idea whether his new fitness regime will translate to him deciding to actually drive to the basket instead of simply hoisting another 3 point shot.  I have no idea if his new found figure is a commitment to turning the Clippers into a successful team, or just part of his master plan to get more sponsorships for diet plans.  But Davis has shown in the past that he can be an elite player when his heart is into it, and if his commitment to fitness this season is any indication, he's ready to reaffirm his elite status. 
  
• What about the rest of his team?  They were a motley group last season, thrown into a funk by the betrayal of Elton Brand, and coached into the 7th circle of hell by Mike Dunleavy.  I don't ever remember a team quitting on the season as early as the Clippers seemed to ... or was that just Baron Davis.  Regardless, the Clippers have a fair amount of talent.  Kaman has shown that he's one of the few true centers in the league, and he's got a decent array of post moves.  Eric Gordan looks like a real winner.  And Blake Griffin has shown glimpses of a tremendous amount of athleticism and ability.  In short, the Clippers future is bright ... or at least it would be, if they weren't cursed worse than the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Which brings us to our next point.
• Blake Griffin blew out his knee.  Not to get to Simmons-esque on you here, but what percentage of people saw Blake Griffin's inevitable injury coming?  50%?  80%?  100%?  Simmons himself predicted it.  As tragic as it is, there can't be a single person surprised by it.  Clippers fans should unfortunately know better than to believe in their team.  There is always something that will screw up this franchise.  If they aren't willing to do it themselves with poor play, poor coaching, and poor personnel decisions, then God has repeatedly proven to be willing to pick up the slack in keeping the Clippers' franchise down. It brings me no joy to see this happen to that franchise time and time again.  I'd love for the Clippers to be good.  If nothing else, a serious cross-town rivalry would add a unique flair to our experiences as fans.  But the writing is on the wall, and its been there for the entirety of the Clippers existence.

After the jump, some Lakers thoughts, and the matchups for tonight's game.

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More photos » by Ronald Martinez - Getty Images

Kobe was human in Game 3. The Magic should count their blessings and not count on that happening again.

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Six losses: one versus Utah, three versus Houston, and two versus Denver. After each one, the Lakers responded, winning by an average of 16.8 points. On Tuesday, a seventh loss; tonight, should the pattern hold, will be a seventh bounce-back win.

After the Lakers' Game 2 win in Los Angeles, I chatted with the Lakers Blog's Andrew Kamenetzky about the impending three-game road trip. John Ireland, as he packed up his stuff and headed out, had just mentioned that he expected the series to return to Los Angeles. AK agreed. Me? I've been making fairly reasonable, safe picks throughout these playoffs, so I decided that it's time to take a bit of a risk and go with the Lakers in five.

Andrew was pretty certain that the Lakers would lose Game 3; I wasn't as certain as he, but I agreed it wouldn't surprise me at all. What we both agreed on was that if the Lakers did win Game 3, this series absolutely would not return to L.A. That didn't happen, so we'll never know. We also agreed that the Lakers wouldn't lose three straight, and were unlikely even to lose two straight. AK thought the Magic would win Games 3 and 5, and drop Game 4 to the Lakers.

Me? I thought the Lakers had a chance to take Game 3, but figured that if the Magic won that game, the Lakers would win Game 4 and Game 5 would be a toss-up. But like I said, I've decided to go with the more risky projection for once, so I'm trimming down my original six-game prediction, and taking the Lakers in five. I think tonight's Game 4 will be a big bounce-back game for the Lakers. Then, in Game 5, I think the Game 3 loss will still be recent enough in their memories to inspire some carryover bounce-back effects. That, combined with the sheer drive that will come from being a single win from actually holding the championship trophy, will push this Lakers team to their fourth win.

I don't think we're coming back here. But we've got at least one more game after this one to decide that, so let's focus first on tonight.

Click on through to read more about tonight's game in Orlando...

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